My Life in E-Flat

By Chan Parker

Book Overview

A memoir of the Jazz Age and a life profoundly influenced by it

My Life in E-flat is the remarkable memoir of a woman who witnessed some of the most important movements in the history of jazz. Through her autobiography, Chan Parker provides intimate insights into the music and into life with Charlie Parker, the key figure in the development of bebop and one of the most important of all jazz musicians.

Born Beverly Dolores Berg in New York City at the height of the Jazz Age, Parker's father was a producer of vaudeville shows and her mother was a dancer in Florenz Ziegfeld's Midnight Frolic. Parker became part of the jazz culture as a nightclub dancer and later as the wife of jazz saxophonists Charlie Parker and then Phil Woods.

In a moving and candid portrait of Charlie Parker, the author describes in harrowing detail a man of incredible talent besieged with addictions and self-destructiveness. She painfully recounts his death at the age of 35 while married to her and its effect on her life as well as on the musical world. Parker's honest portrait of one of the most gifted musicians in jazz provides unique insight into the history of the music and the difficulties faced by African American performers during the 1940s.

Parker also reflects on her struggle to find her own voice and on her work with Clint Eastwood on the film biography of Charlie Parker, Bird (1988).

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1570032459
• ISBN13: 9781570032455
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A wonderful story of a life dedicated to beautiful music.

A story I have tried to locate and read for a number of years. Wonderfully written with love and respect. I feel so fortunate to have this book - it took so long to be released and I am now reading it for the second time. Chan gives the average fan a better understanding of the artist (Bird) who forever changed the music of our lives. Many details of her life and the exciting time of her youth are included. I almost felt like I was there myself - you can feel the music in the air. A huge thank you to the author - I am so grateful to have this piece of history and am even more passionate about the music of the great Charlie Parker. A must read for any jazz fan....